Refrigerator with instant ice maker

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having an instant ice maker, and according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator including a refrigerator body provided with a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber; a first and a second ice maker disposed inside the refrigerator, respectively; a water supply means configured to supply water to the first and the second ice maker; and a precooling means provided between the first ice maker and the water supply means to precool water supplied to the first ice maker.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0074270, filed on Jul. 30, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having an instant ice maker, and more particularly, to a refrigerator for instantly making and supplying ice when the ice is needed.

2. Description of the Related Art

In general, a refrigerator may be provided with a plurality of storage chambers, so-called freezing chambers and refrigerating chambers, each maintaining a different temperature, and thus a user may select any storage chamber according to the characteristic of a food to be kept, thereby allowing the food to be kept fresh for a long time. Though the storage function is a basic function required for a refrigerator, refrigerators having more various functions have been widely sold in the market over recent years.

An example of the refrigerator may include a refrigerator having an ice-making function. Though the ice-making function has existed from the beginning of the use of refrigerators, a refrigerator provided with an ice maker having the function of automatically producing and storing ice have gained in popularity over recent years. The ice maker has a function of storing water supplied from an external source of water and making ice using the stored water, and then storing ice in an ice bank, and then the stored ice may be supplied directly or through an ice dispenser when required by the user.

In the refrigerator having an ice maker in the related art, a substantial amount of time may be required to make ice, and thus only when ice has been made and stored in advance the user can use ice as the need arises. It does not cause any problem when the produced ice has been consumed in the early days, but when the produced ice has not been consumed for a long period of time, the ice should be stored in an ice bank for a long period of time, thus causing a problem of being soaked with unpleasant smell or being adhered to one another.

In particular, in recent years, so-called bottom freezer type refrigerators having a freezing chamber located at an upper portion thereof and a refrigerating chamber located at a lower portion thereof have been widely used, but in such a bottom freezer type refrigerator, an ice maker and an ice dispenser may be located at the refrigerating chamber by taking into consideration of the use convenience. Due to this, there is a limit in effectively using a space of the refrigerating chamber, and an ice maker is disposed at the refrigerating chamber maintaining a temperature above zero, thus the stored ice may be easily melted, thereby causing a problem of being adhered to one another.

In order to solve the foregoing problem, there has been introduced a refrigerator having a high-speed ice maker, which is called an instant ice maker. Although the instant ice maker is advantageous in the aspect of solving the foregoing problem because of instantly producing and supplying ice as the need arises, there is a problem that a lot of time is consumed to produce ice in actuality as well as a large quantity of ice is needed at a time. In addition, a large capacity compressor may be required to reduce time consumed to make ice, but it may also cause an increase of the production cost and an increase of the power consumption.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is contrived to overcome the foregoing disadvantages in the related art, and it is a technical task of the present invention to provide a refrigerator having an instant ice maker capable of easily obtaining a large quantity of ice as well as instantly making ice as the need arises.

In order to accomplish the foregoing technical task, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator including a refrigerator body provided with a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber; a first and a second ice maker disposed inside the refrigerator, respectively; a water supply means configured to supply water to the first and the second ice maker; and a precooling means provided between the first ice maker and the water supply means to precool water supplied to the first ice maker.

According to the above aspect of the present invention, two ice makers are placed inside a refrigerator, and water supplied to one of the ice makers is precooled to reduce the time for producing ice. Through this, ice that has been produced and stored by a general ice maker may be used when a large quantity of ice is required, and ice may be instantly supplied by using the precooled water when fresh ice is required. Here, an ice container for storing ice that has been made by the second ice maker may be added thereto.

Furthermore, the first ice maker may be configured to make ice with the method similar to the second ice maker. In order to more rapidly make ice, the first ice maker may be supplied with cool air by an evaporator other than an evaporator for cooling the inside of the refrigerator. In addition, the first ice maker may be configured in such a manner that a refrigerant pipe prior to or subsequent to being passed through an expansion apparatus constituting a refrigerant cycle is brought into contact with water stored in an ice tray, directly or indirectly by interposing an ice tray.

On the other hand, the freezing chamber may be disposed at a lower portion of the refrigerating chamber, and the first ice maker may be disposed in the refrigerating chamber, and the second ice maker in the freezing chamber, respectively. Through this, ice produced by the second ice maker can be stored for a long period of time without being melted, and also ice can be obtained through the first ice maker disposed in the refrigerating chamber without bending the body.

On the other hand, an ice making chamber thermally isolated from the inside of the refrigerating chamber may be provided at the refrigerating chamber, and the first ice maker may be provided inside the ice making chamber.

In this case, the ice making chamber may be provided at a refrigerating chamber side door for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber, and the ice making chamber may be separated from the refrigerating chamber side door for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber to be provided inside the refrigerating chamber.

Furthermore, the precooling means may include a water supply pipe disposed to be brought into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the refrigerant pipe through which low-temperature refrigerant flows, and water passed through the water supply pipe may be cooled by being heat-exchanged with refrigerant.

Besides, the precooling means may include a cold storage means configured to store cool air from the cool air inside the ice making chamber; and a water supply pipe disposed to be brought into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the cold storage means, or a super cooling means for storing the supplied water. In this case, the super cooling means may include a container configured to store the supplied water; and an electric field applying means configured to form an electric field in water stored inside the container.

According to aspects of the present invention, a refrigerator may include a plurality of ice makers, and thus the user can be supplied with ice depending on the use as the need arises, thereby enhancing the use convenience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an internal structure of the first embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view illustrating a precooling means of the first embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating the structure a cooling cycle of the first embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, a refrigerator having an instant ice maker according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a refrigerator having an instant ice maker according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view along the line A-A′ of FIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the refrigerator is so-called a French-door type refrigerator in which a refrigerating chamber is disposed at an upper portion thereof, and a freezing chamber is disposed at a lower portion thereof, and the refrigerating chamber is opened or closed by two doors. Here, the refrigerator may not necessarily have two doors, and an example of opening or closing the refrigerating chamber by one door may be also taken into consideration.

As illustrated in the drawing, in a refrigerator according to the present invention, a freezing chamber 2 for storing foods in a freezing state may be formed at a lower side of the refrigerator body 1, and a refrigerating chamber 3 for storing foods in a refrigerating state may be formed at an upper side of the refrigerator body 1. Furthermore, a freezing chamber door 4 for opening or closing the freezing chamber 2 in a sliding manner may be provided at the to freezing chamber 2, and a plurality of refrigerating chamber doors 5 for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber 3 at both sides thereof in a hinged manner may be provided at both sides of the refrigerating chamber 3. Furthermore, a machine chamber 6 provided with a compressor 10 and a condenser 12 may be located at a lower rear portion of the refrigerator body 1.

Furthermore, an evaporator (not shown) connected to the condenser and compressor to supply cool air to the freezing chamber 2 or refrigerating chamber 3 may be typically provided between an outer case and an inner case at a rear surface of the refrigerator body 1, namely, a rear wall surface of the freezing chamber. However, the evaporator may be inserted and provided in the inside of a side wall surface or upper side wall surface of the freezing chamber or inserted and provided in the inside of the partition wall 7 partitioning the freezing chamber 2 and refrigerating chamber 3. Only one evaporator may be may be provided in the freezing chamber to distribute and supply cool air to the freezing chamber 2 and refrigerating chamber 3, or an evaporator for the freezing chamber and an evaporator for the refrigerating chamber may be provided therein, respectively, to independently supply cool air to the freezing chamber 2 and refrigerating chamber 3, respectively.

The refrigerating chamber door 5 may be provided with a dispenser 8 allowing water and ice to be supplied from the outside of the refrigerating chamber door and a home bar 9 allowing articles inside the refrigerating chamber to be taken out without opening the refrigerating chamber door, respectively. The dispenser 8 may be provided with two levers 8 a, 8 b, wherein on the basis of FIG. 1, a lever 8 a located at the left side corresponds to a water supply lever 8 a allowing water stored in a water supply tank, which will be described later, to be taken out and an ice supply lever 8 b located at the right side corresponds to an ice supply lever 8 b allowing ice to be taken out.

A switch, which is not shown in the drawing, may be provided at a rear surface of each lever, and the switch may be pressed while the lever being pressed, and through this, a function assigned to the pressed lever may be is performed through a controller which is not shown in the drawing.

Referring to FIG. 2, a chute 8 c for ejecting ice may be formed at an upper portion of the inside of the dispenser 8, and an instant ice maker 20 may be provided at an upper portion of the chute 8 c. The instant ice maker 20 may be configured to instantly make ice, compared to an ice maker which will be described later, and located inside an ice making chamber 5 a provided at a rear surface of the refrigerating chamber door 5. The instant ice maker 20 may have a form typically known as an ice maker, namely, a form including an ice tray for storing water and an ice discharge means for discharging ice that has been made. Besides, a structure that a refrigerant pipe through which refrigerant flows is directly brought into contact with water stored in an ice tray to form ice around the refrigerant pipe may be also employed.

A damper 8 d may be provided inside the chute 8 c to control the supply of ice that has been produced by the instant ice maker 20. Moreover, a water supply nozzle 8 e may be provided adjacent to the chute 8 c, thereby allowing water to be supplied through this.

In this case, the ice making chamber 5 a may be made of an insulating material for insulating an inner space of the ice making chamber from an inner space of the refrigerating chamber 3, or may have the form of being attached to insulating material. Furthermore, cool air produced by an evaporator for making ice 22 provided inside the refrigerating chamber 3 may be supplied within the ice making chamber 5 a to instantly make ice. The evaporator for making ice 22 may be provided inside an insulating space partitioned to be insulated by a partition wall 26 within the refrigerating chamber to form cool air while ambient air being heat exchanged with the evaporator for making ice 22 by a ventilation fan 24 provided adjacent to the evaporator for making ice. The formed cool air may be supplied to the inside of the ice making chamber 5 a through a cool air supply duct which is not shown in the drawing.

Through this, cool air only for the instant ice maker 20 can be supplied, thereby more instantly making ice. However, an example of supplying the cool air of the refrigerating chamber into the ice making chamber 5 a may be taken into consideration.

On the other hand, an ice maker 30 may be also provided inside the freezing chamber 2, wherein the ice maker 30 produces ice using cool air within the freezing chamber, and the produced ice may be stored inside an ice bin 32 provided at a lower portion thereof. For the ice maker in the freezing chamber 2, a general type ice maker typically used may be employed.

Furthermore, the instant ice maker 20 and the ice maker 30 may receive water from an external water source such as a water supply source. The external water source may be supplied to the inside of the refrigerator through a first water supply pipe 40 provided in the refrigerator body 1, and the supply of water from the external water source may be controlled by opening or closing a first valve 42. The water passed through the first valve 42 may be purified while passing through a filter 44, and then introduced to a second valve 46.

The second valve 46 may have three outlets, wherein one of them is connected to a precooling means which will be described later, and the remaining two outlets are connected to the ice maker 30 and a water supply tank 50. The water supply tank 50 performs a function of storing water to be supplied through the foregoing water supply nozzle. Here, water supply pipes for connecting between the first and the second valve, filter, water supply tank and ice maker may be located inside a hinge (not shown) for connecting a wall body of the refrigerator body 1 and the inside of the door 5 or a door and a refrigerator body, the method or structure for providing the water supply pipes in the refrigerator body or the inside of the door have been conventionally known and therefore, the detailed description and drawings thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, the precooling means 60 performs a function of precooling water supplied from the second valve 4 to reduce time consumed to produce ice. Referring to FIG. 3, the precooling means 60 may include a cylindrical support portion 62, and a refrigerant pipe 64 through which part of all of low-temperature refrigerant introduced to the evaporator for making ice 22 flows may be provided at an inner circumferential portion of the cylindrical support portion 62 to be brought into contact with an inner wall surface of the support portion 62. Furthermore, a second water supply pipe 66 through which the supplied water flows may be provided at an outer circumferential portion of the cylindrical support portion 62 to be brought into contact with an outer wall surface thereof. Here, the cylindrical support portion 62 may be made of a material such as aluminium or copper, thereby implementing the heat transfer between low-temperature refrigerant flowing through the inside of the refrigerant pipe 64 and water flowing through the inside of the water supply pipe 65.

Accordingly, when a length between the refrigerant pipe and water supply pipe is properly adjusted, it may be possible to control the temperature of water supplied to the instant ice maker 20 through the water supply pipe to be around 0° C. Through this, water precooled by the instant ice maker 20 may be supplied, thereby drastically reducing time consumed to make ice.

Hereinafter, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. First, the ice maker 30 disposed at the freezing chamber receives water from the second valve to continuously produce ice, and the produced ice is stored within the ice bin located at a lower portion thereof. The production of ice may continue until a signal notifying that sufficient ice has been filled within the ice bin is detected by a full ice detection means (not shown). As a result, when a large quantity of ice is needed, the user may open the freezing chamber door and then use ice stored within the ice bin.

On the contrary, when fresh ice instantly produced is needed, which is not ice that has been stored for a long period of time, if the user presses a manipulation button or the ice supply lever provided in the refrigerator, then the controller detects it to allow the instant ice maker to be operated. Specifically, an outlet at the side of the water supply pipe 66 of the second valve 46 is opened to supply water into the water supply pipe 66 as well as allowing refrigerant to flow into the refrigerant pipe 64. FIG. 4 is a view schematically illustrating a cooling cycle apparatus related to the evaporator for making ice, which is additionally provided with a bypass flow path 16 for bypassing part of refrigerant that has passed through the condenser 12 and capillary tube 14, and additionally provided with a bypass valve 18 for controlling the flow of refrigerant to the bypass flow path 16.

Accordingly, the controller may adjust an opening degree of the bypass valve 18 to control a ratio of refrigerant flowing into the evaporator for making ice 22 and refrigerant pipe 64. As described above, the bypass valve 18 may be opened to precool water while water being supplied to the instant ice maker, and the bypass valve 18 may be closed to supply refrigerant only to the evaporator for making ice 22 when the supply of water has been completed. Through this, cold water having a temperature of around 0° C. may be supplied to the instant ice maker 20, thereby allowing ice to be instantly made.

If a process of making ice by the instant ice maker has been completed, then the controller may open the damper 8 d, thereby allowing ice to be supplied through the dispenser 8.

On the other hand, the precooling means will not be necessarily limited to the illustrated form, and an example of allowing a refrigerant pipe and a water supply pipe to be directly brought into contact with each other without the cylindrical support portion may be also taken into consideration. Furthermore, though water that has passed through a water supply pipe is directly supplied to the instant ice maker according to the foregoing embodiment, it will not be necessarily limited to this, and an example of including a storage container for storing precooled water may be also taken into consideration.

Furthermore, the precooling means may be configured to include a cold storage means for accumulating and storing cool air. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a second embodiment including the cold storage means as a precooling means. On the other hand, constituent elements in the second embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, which are same as those of the first embodiment, are designated with the same numeral references and their redundant description will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 5, the precooling means 160 may be different from that of the first embodiment in the aspect of being located inside the ice making chamber 5 a. In this case, the precooling means 160 may include a cold storage pack 162 for accumulating cold energy within the ice making chamber 5 a and then discharging it later and a water supply pipe 164 which is wound around an outer circumferential portion of the cold storage pack 162. Accordingly, water supplied to the water supply pipe 164 may be cooled by the cold storage pack 162, and during this process, a low-temperature atmosphere within the ice making chamber may further reduce time consumed to precool water.

On the other hand, the precooling means may include a supercooling means. The term “supercooling” refers to a phenomenon in which a liquid such as water maintains a high-temperature phase, namely, a liquid state without being changed into a solid state even under the phase change temperature. In a natural state, supercooling water drop may be an example of that, and there is a case where water or a drink is changed into a supercooling state by chance without being frozen even in a refrigerator in the related art. Various methods may be used to induce such a supercooling state, and as an example, the method of applying an electric field to a container containing water may be taken into consideration.

Specifically, in a state that a storage container for storing supplied water and an electrode for which the storage container is disposed therebetween are placed in the ice making chamber, if an electric field is applied to the water using alternating current (AC) power through the electrode, then the water maintains a supercooling liquid state even in the below-zero temperature atmosphere. The reason that water consisting of oxygen and hydrogen is prevented from being frozen in the state of applying an electric field has been known because hydrogen bonding of water is disturbed by supplying energy such as an electric field. When the produced supercooling water is supplied to is the instant ice maker, ice can be instantly produced. 

1. A refrigerator, comprising: a refrigerator body provided with a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber; a first and a second ice maker disposed inside the refrigerator, respectively; a water supply means configured to supply water to the first and the second ice maker; and a precooling means provided between the first ice maker and the water supply means to precool water supplied to the first ice maker.
 2. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the first ice maker is supplied with cool air by an evaporator other than an evaporator for cooling the inside of the refrigerator.
 3. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the freezing chamber is disposed at a lower portion of the refrigerating chamber, and the first ice maker is disposed in the refrigerating chamber, and the second ice maker in the freezing chamber, respectively.
 4. The refrigerator of claim 3, wherein an ice making chamber thermally isolated from the inside of the refrigerating chamber is provided at the refrigerating chamber, and the first ice maker is provided inside the ice making chamber.
 5. The refrigerator of claim 4, wherein the ice making chamber is provided at a refrigerating chamber side door for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber.
 6. The refrigerator of claim 4, wherein the ice making chamber is separated from the refrigerating chamber side door for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber to be provided inside the refrigerating chamber.
 7. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the precooling means comprises: a water supply pipe disposed to be brought into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the refrigerant pipe through which low-temperature refrigerant flows, and water passed through the water supply pipe is cooled by being heat-exchanged with refrigerant.
 8. The refrigerator of claim 4, wherein the precooling means comprises: a cold storage means configured to store cool air from the cool air inside the ice making chamber; and a water supply pipe disposed to be brought into contact with an outer circumferential surface of the cold storage means.
 9. The refrigerator of claim 4, wherein the precooling means comprises a super cooling means for storing the supplied water.
 10. The refrigerator of claim 9, wherein the super cooling means comprises: a container configured to store the supplied water; and an electric field applying means configured to form an electric field in water stored inside the container. 